Elitch Gardens’ 13th Annual Fright Fest Pet Parade takes place Oct. 8 from noon until 2 p.m., benefitting the Dumb Friends League These canine pirates are some of the previous Halloween entrants. This year's registration has closed.

ANIMAL NOTES

* Should spay and neuter surgeries be mandatory for newly adopted pets?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) thinks so, and put together a petition asking President Obama to make it happen.

PETA is using the Obama administration’s new “We the People” petition site to call for a mandatory spay-and-neuter law for all animals adopted from shelters or bought from pet stores, puppy mills, and breeders … “until the nation’s overpopulation crisis has abated and all the homeless dogs and cats in the U.S. have homes to call their own.”

PETA hoped to be the first to reach 5,000 signatures and have its petition reviewed by the White House administration. As of Friday, it had 9,595 signatures.

“We needed to gather 5,000 signatures in 30 days,” said PETA spokesperson Kristin Richards. “We had that in 24 hours.”

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* The Unwanted Horse Fund, which appeared on Colorado state income tax forms for the first time in 2011, raised $88,000 to help with unwanted horse programs.

“Raising this much money to help the many unwanted horses that are victims of the economy or, unfortunately, someone’s ignorance and abuse, is extraordinary and we are so thankful to every taxpayer who donated to the fund,” said Hildy Armour, president of the Colorado Unwanted Horse Alliance.

In 2010, Governor Bill Ritter signed into law Senate Bill 10-139, the Unwanted Horse Fund Tax Check-off. The fund is administered by the alliance. An estimated 6,000 horses became unwanted in 2009 in Colorado.

Fetch takes a topical look at a variety of issues affecting pets, including the latest research results.. It seeks to provide useful information for Colorado pet owners and to spotlight the work of Colorado animal welfare groups.